TRADE GROUP TARGETS PIRACY VALENTI PUSHES FOR PROTECTIONS.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Entertainment industry leaders and their allies in Congress joined forces Thursday in a new coalition that will seek to simultaneously break down trade barriers while cracking down on video and music piracy.

Speaking at a Capitol press conference to announce the new Entertainment Industry Coalition for Free Trade, Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said, ``We need to make sure there are protections for intellectual property in every trade agreement this country makes.'' He praised newly negotiated trade pacts with Chile and Singapore that include piracy and copyright provisions.

Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative and President George W. Bush's point man on negotiating new agreements, pledged to push for bilateral and enforceable copyright and anti-piracy pacts. ``I can think of no industry that defines a world without borders better than the entertainment industry does,'' he said.

Local House members backing the group include Reps. David Dreier, R-Glendora; Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys; and Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles.

Berman said that, in the past, ``copyright and piracy provisions have often fallen by the wayside'' in trade negotiations. He cited the case of Canada, which dropped many trade barriers as a result of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, but has since played unfairly with Hollywood.

``The Canadian subsidies that encourage runaway production should have been dealt with and eliminated as part of NAFTA,'' said Berman. He also noted that Canada continues to bar a substantial amount of American music and TV programming.

By law, Canadian-produced TV shows must get 60 percent of the air time on the state-owned Canadian Broadcasting Co. Radio stations' music playlists must be 35 percent Canadian.

Dreier noted that entertainment and other intellectual property products, from works of literature to computer software, annually generate $500 billion in sales and represent ``the only industry in America that is on the plus side of our balance of trade.''

``This a very important issue for our company and our entire industry,'' said Richard Bates, Washington-based vice president of government relations for The Walt Disney Co. ``We depend on foreign markets for 40 percent of our revenue.''

Berman said Russia, which is seeking U.S. backing to join the World Trade Organization, should be a major target of coalition efforts. ``It's a huge problem,'' said Berman. ``Today, 80 percent of the American films distributed and shown in Russia have been pirated.''

Earlier Thursday, Valenti testified to the House Judiciary Committee that organized crime and terrorist groups have turned to movie and music piracy as major fund-raising tools. He noted that Northern Ireland's Irish Republican Army and Mafia-style gangs in Russia had recently been linked to large-scale pirating of tapes, CDs and DVDs.

Other members of the new free trade group include the Recording Industry Association of America, AOL Time Warner, the National Association of Theater Owners and the Interactive Digital Software Association.